Heatley was on a clear downward trend long before the Wild traded for him. Also, he was aquired due to his shorter deal, not because of his goal scoring.
Fletcher says otherwise;
Listening to Minnesota Wild GM Chuck Fletcher at the 2011 NHL draft, one could hear the seeds of the Dany Heatley trade taking root. Maybe not for the player himself, but for a player with his offensive skills.
"I believe we were the worst shooting team in the league last year," he said at the draft. "We didn't shoot the puck a whole bunch, and when we did shoot it, we didn't shoot it particularly well."
"He's still one of the better scorers in the league," said Fletcher during a media call on Monday. "I think his track record speaks for itself. He's a proven goal-scorer, and a player we expect to score goals for us next year and going forward."
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/pu...a-Wild-traded-for-Dany-Heatley?urn=nhl-wp8593
Why make the trade?
"For us to compete and do a better job next year we felt we needed to score more goals. Certainly this trade, acquiring certainly one of the better goal scorers in the NHL today in Dany Heatley, on the heels of acquiring Devin Setoguchi at the draft, we feel we've added some goal scorers, some players that shoot the puck, and hopefully will mesh well with some of the other players that we have on our roster."
http://wild.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=568444
So, unless GMCF is lying, we traded for Heatley because he was a goal scorer.
While Heatley was on a downward trend, he dropped off considerably from being a 25+ goal scorer (which he was showing) to a 10+ goal scorer.
Vanek is on no such downward trend.
Actually Vanek hasn't hit 40 goals in a while and is currently hovering around where Heatley was. He had 32 goals in 2010-2011, 26 goals in 2011-2012, and so far 25 goals this season. He should pot some more but it's a far cry from the 43 and 40 goals he scored a few years ago. Similar to Heatley.
As for the Wild being notorious for drying up goal scorers... why is it then Gaborik scored his career high in Minnesota... Rolston his career high in Minnesota, Pominville maintaining his typical goal scoring pace... Parise maintaining his pace...
Gaborik played with different players and was a totally different team. Gaborik also scored career high of 42 goals (in one less game) in New York and had 41 goals in 82. He also had his career high in points in New York.
Rolston had 3 more goals but again, different teams, different players and he had a great facilitator in Bouchard, who I see somewhat in Granlund. AGAIN though different team.
Pominville is certainly doing well and he's on pace for a typical year in goal scoring but points, he's below average.
Parise isn't scoring at his normal and typical rate. He's usually above 30 goals. He's actually slightly below average (if he gets there).
With that said;
Eric Belanger (less goals on average in Minnesota)
Andrew Brunette (had his career year in Colorado and average more points)
Martin Havlat (below average)
Chuck Kobasew
Matt Cullen (below average in goals and points)
Eric Nystrom (below average in goals and points)
Tom Gilbert (below average in goals and points)
Darroll Powe (below average in goals and points)
Devin Setoguchi (could never get his spark back here but below average)
Zenon Konopka (hey! He can actually score a few more than 1 goal)
Torrey Mitchell
Mike Rupp
Keith Ballard
And before you say, who cares their third/fourth lines? Fletcher has constantly shuffled the third/fourth lines because he's looking for more offense from everyone, not just from the first two lines.
Havlat was always known as a playmaker more than a scorer.
While known, that doesn't mean he can't score goals;
22 goals, 24 goals, 31 goals, 25 goals, 29 goals...yep! Doesn't seem like a goal scorer. And yes, while he was primarily known as more of a playmaker, he was still considered an offensive player that could generate goals. He was brought in to help ease the loss of Gaborik.
Healtey was brough in because of his year shorter deal than Havlat's,
Look above.
Kobasew was never considered a goal scorer!
Then why did we trade for him? Kobasew had actually three seasons of 20+ goal seasons, including two in Boston before we traded for him. Fletcher was looking for a goalscorer at the time and went after Kobasew, who Boston was more than happy to give up.
Goal scorers that the Wild brought in.... Rolston, Parise, Pominville... all worked out just fine.
Heatley, Setoguchi, Havlat haven't.
Also Rolston was from a different time WHEN THEY COULD SCORE GOALS.
Parise is actually below average (averages above 30 a season). Poms is looking like the only working but that is because we have an offensive center working with him.
I'd say about 80-90% of the time. Just takes a while because things don't happen linear or they fall into a pattern most people don't see. Sometimes there is an outlier though. 
